Oak Woodlands and Other Hardwood Forests of California, 1990S
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United States Department of Agriculture Oak Woodlands and Forest Service Pacific Northwest Other Hardwood Forests Research Station Resource Bulletin of California, 1990s PNW-RB-245 February 2005 K.L. Waddell and T.M. Barrett The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is dedicated to the principle of multiple use management of the Nation’s forest resources for sustained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with the States and private forest owners, and management of the National Forests and National Grasslands, it strives—as directed by Congress—to provide increasingly greater service to a growing Nation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. USDA is committed to making the information materials accessible to all USDA customers and employees Authors K.L. Waddell and T.M. Barrett are research foresters, Forestry Sciences Labora- tory, P.O. Box 3890, Portland, OR 97208-3890. Photo Credit Cover photo by Dale Waddell Abstract Waddell, K.L.; Barrett, T.M. 2005. Oak woodlands and other hardwood forests of California, 1990s. PNW-RB-245. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agricul- ture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 94 p. This report provides a multiownership assessment of oak woodlands and other hardwood forests in California, excluding only reserved lands outside of national forests. Because sampling intensity on woodlands was doubled from the previous 1981-84 inventory, and because national forests were inventoried, this is the most complete assessment to date for California hardwoods. Tables provide estimates for hardwood forest type area, hardwood volume, biomass, numbers of trees, change in forest area, growth, harvest, and mortality. The dates of the inventories used in the assessment, 1991-94 for unreserved lands outside national forests and 1994-2000 for national forests, also allowed an assessment of pre-epidemic conditions for susceptible tree species and forests in a 12-county area affected by sudden oak death. Summary 1 For the 1990s, hardwood forests were estimated to cover more than 11.3 million acres (±2 percent sampling error [se; see glossary for definition]), which was 40 percent of forest land in California. Hardwood forest area included 6.7 million acres of oak woodland, 76 percent of which was privately owned, and 0.5 million acres of non-oak woodland. Of the 4.1 million acres of hardwood timberland forest, oak forest types constituted 53 percent. Blue oak woodland was the most common hardwood forest type in California. Low levels of blue oak regeneration observed in the 1980s continued into the 1990s. In descending order of occurrence, other common hardwood forest types included canyon live oak, California black oak, tanoak, interior live oak, coast live oak, Oregon white oak, and Pacific madrone. Other forest types, including California laurel, Engelmann oak, and valley oak, were uncommon, estimated to be 2 percent or less of the total hardwood forest area in California. The net growing-stock volume of hardwood tree species on the inventoried area was estimated as 4.7 billion cubic feet (±5 percent se) on woodland and 9.4 billion cubic feet (±3 percent se) on timberland, with California black oak having 1 All estimates exclude reserved land outside of national forests, such as national and state parks. These lands are excluded because they were not inventoried. Estimates of change from the 1980s to the 1990s also exclude national forest land. the largest growing-stock volume of any hardwood species. The aboveground biomass of hardwood trees on forest land was estimated as 555 million tons (±2 percent se), or 29 percent of overall tree biomass in California forest lands. Com- bining inventory estimates with other published data indicated that about 2 percent of the estimated board-foot volume in harvested hardwood sawtimber-sized trees went to California sawmills. An estimated 60,000 acres per decade of hardwood forest was converted to developed land or roads between 1984 and 1994 (upper 68 percent confidence interval is 130,000 acres per decade). Of the common forest types, California black oak had the greatest percentage decrease in area from 1984 to 1994; excluding salvage logging, 11 percent of the black oak forest type on timberland had some black oak trees harvested or cut and left on the plot between 1981-84 and 1991-94. However, overall net growing-stock volume increased for California black oak and other common hardwood species. Within the 12 counties quarantined as of summer 2004 for Phytophthora ramorum, the pathogen associated with sudden oak death, an estimated 3.8 million acres (±4 percent se) of forest land is dominated by the regulated host species of tanoak, coastal redwood, Douglas-fir, coast live oak, California black oak, Pacific madrone, California buckeye, canyon live oak, California laurel, and bigleaf maple. Tanoak, California black oak, coast live oak, and Shreve’s oak are tree species that can suffer trunk lesions and associated mortality from Phytophthora ramorum. These trees are important to wildlife diversity, contributing to habitat and provid- ing a source of acorns. Although essential characteristics of the disease are still unknown, there appears to be a potential for very extensive changes of forest structure and composition over a geographic range encompassing millions of acres of California forest land, with the potential for many indirect ecosystem effects. Contents 1 Introduction 2 Inventories Used in This Report 4 Hardwood Forest Types in the 1990s 5 Blue Oak Forest Type 10 Canyon Live Oak Forest Type 13 California Black Oak Forest Type 16 Tanoak Forest Type 19 Interior Live Oak Forest Type 21 Coast Live Oak Forest Type 23 Oregon White Oak Forest Type 25 Pacific Madrone Forest Type 27 Other Hardwood Forest Types 27 Hardwood Resources 27 Wildlife 30 Forest Product Resources 32 Hardwood Rangeland 33 Changes in California Hardwoods From 1981-84 to 1991-94 33 Methods 34 Results 36 Pre-Sudden Oak Death Forest Conditions for 12 California Counties 41 Glossary 45 Acknowledgments 46 Metric Equivalents 46 Literature Cited 53 Appendix 1. Scientific and Common Plant Names 56 Appendix 2. Inventory Procedures List of Tables Table 1—Area of hardwood and softwood forest types on woodland and timber- land by resource area and reserve status, California, 1990s Table 2—Area of hardwood forest types on woodland and timberland by resource area and owner, California, 1990s Table 3—Net growing-stock volume of hardwood species on woodland and timberland by resource area and owner, California, 1990s Table 4—Total stem volume of hardwood species for all live trees on woodland by diameter class, California, 1990s Table 5—Total stem volume of hardwood species for all live trees on timberland by diameter class, California, 1990s Table 6—Total stem volume of hardwood species for all live trees on woodland and timberland by diameter class, California, 1990s Table 7—Aboveground (oven-dry) biomass of hardwood species for all live trees on woodland by diameter class, California, 1990s Table 8—Aboveground (oven-dry) biomass of hardwood species for all live trees on timberland by diameter class, California, 1990s Table 9—Aboveground (oven-dry) biomass of hardwood species for all live trees on woodland and timberland by diameter class, California, 1990s Table 10—Total stem volume of hardwood species (≥4 in diameter at breast height) on unreserved woodland and timberland by resource area and owner, California, 1990s Table 11—Forest type area from 1984 to 1994 by owner, on unreserved woodland outside national forests, California Table 12—Change in forest type area from 1984 to 1994 on unreserved woodland and timberland outside of national forests, California Table 13—Net growing-stock volume of hardwood species, 1984 and 1994, on unreserved woodland and timberland outside national forests, California Table 14—Gross volume of periodic mortality, periodic removals, annual mortality, and annual removals for hardwood trees that died during the remeasurement period (1984 to 1994), on unreserved woodland and timberland outside national forests, California Table 15—Gross volume in 1984 and average annual volume change (1984 to 1994) for hardwood species, on unreserved woodland and timberland outside national forests, California Table 16—Total stem volume of hardwood tree mortality between 1984 and 1994, by species and diameter class, on unreserved woodland and timberland, outside national forests, California Table 17—Estimated numbers of large hardwood trees on woodland and timber- land, by species and diameter class, California, 1990s Table 18—Estimated numbers of small hardwood trees on woodland and timber- land, by species and diameter class, California, 1990s Table 19—Forest type attributes